[NEW HARDWARE] Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 based Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter? #45
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@NilsBohr FYI, EFR32MG21 based ConBee III (ConBee 3) from Dresden-Elektronik was officially released in early November 2023: So now would be the perfect time to release an EFR32MG24 based USB adapter on the market ;) |
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Any update ? see itead/Sonoff_Zigbee_Dongle_Firmware#28
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For your information; Silicon Labs has recently also announced but not yet released a xG26 (EFR32xG26) family which includes multiprotocol EFR32MG26 (MG26) SoC/MCU that they claim is more "future-proof" for new IoT devices. Check out: https://www.silabs.com/wireless/efr32xg26 Probably overkill as a Zigbee Coordinator for most end-users other than for marketing purposes, and I understand that their claim of a "future-proof" is primarly because this new SoC/MCI features up to a whopping 3200KB of Flash Storage , 512KB of RAM, and 64 GPIO’s. Though this could be nice for developers, especially if would also consider making an EFR32MG26 development board/kit. For marketing purposes this would still be nice as could sell such USB adapter marketed as "Pro" or "Elite" product with support for multiprotocol, the interesting SoC/MCU for Zigbee, Thread, and Bluetooth is Silicon Labs EFR32MG26 Series 2 (a.k.a. MG26): https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg26-series-2-socs Once these SoCs are made available to manufacturers I think this new EFR32MG26 SoC/MCU model will be particularly interesting as a Zigbee Coordinator targeting gateway applications that allow for a much higher total Zigbee 3.0 device limitation, while also providing headroom to enable Multi-PAN support Matter over Thread Thread Boarder Router if that feature ever become more stable. https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee Other than having 5x Flash Storage and RAM + double of GPIOs, the specification looks practically identical to the previous EFR32MG24:
No news on FCC/CE precertified MGM260/MGM260P/MGM260L) modules based on EFR32MG26 to replace MGM240 and MGM240. https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg26-series-2-modules https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg24-series-2-modules https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg21-series-2-modules PS: At the same time they also announced EFR32BG26 (Silabs EFR32 BG26) which is basically the same chip locked to Bluetooth only: https://www.silabs.com/wireless/bluetooth/efr32bg26-series-2-socs |
@NilsBohr I would like to suggest that you look into making and selling a variant of your Zigbee Coordinator USB dongle adapter that would instead be based on the new Silabs EFR32MG24 SoC chip (with highest possible RAM, Flash, and dBM power application possible):
https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg24-series-2-socs
Note that they also have various MGM240P (MGM240 radio modules based on EFR32MG24 with + 20 dBm power ampified transmitter):
https://www.silabs.com/wireless/zigbee/efr32mg24-series-2-modules
For development they have xG24-RB4188A (EFR32xG24 Pro Kit +20 dBm) and xG24-RB4187C (EFR32xG24 20 dBm Radio Board):
https://www.silabs.com/development-tools/wireless/xg24-rb4188a-efr32xg24-wireless-gecko-radio-board?tab=overview
https://www.silabs.com/development-tools/wireless/xg24-rb4187c-efr32xg24-wireless-gecko-radio-board?tab=overview
Also noticed that RF-Star already has a finished radio module ("RF-BM-MG24B2") that can be used for prototyping:
https://www.rfstariot.com/rf-bm-mg24b2-matter-zigbee-openthread-ble-multiprotocol-efr32mg24-module_p106.html
As well as the xG24-DK2601B (development kit for prototyping wireless end devices with only 10 dBm radio):
https://www.silabs.com/development-tools/wireless/efr32xg24-dev-kit?tab=overview
FYI, SparkFun Electronics released a similar MGM240P based "SparkFun Thing Plus Matter" (DEV-20270) development board:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/20270
Silicon Labs (sometimes also referred to as "Silabs") has released its new EFR32MG24 radio MCU SoC which is a direct upgrade replacement for its EFR32MG21 with SoC variants with larger flash storage, much more RAM and a faster CPU so those EFR32MG24 SoCs with more resources (especially RAM) than the EFR32MG21 used on most other Silicon Labs based USB dongles should be capable of handling many more Zigbee devices, and it in additional also on paper it offers improved reception and a little less noise sensitivity.
Note that there are variants of EFR32MG24 that have less RAM and Flash Storage or less dBm in power amplification, so be sure not use use one of those. You want to instead be sure to use one that has 256 kB RAM of data memory and 1536 kB flash program memory, (i.e. EFR32MG24B020F1536IM48 if do not want AI/ML acceleration). Also note that there are as well a few special variants that in addition offer onboard AI/ML acceleration (check out the EFR32MG24B220F1536IM48 variant in 6x6 QFN48 format) for not a lot of extra cost so might be worth getting that if available to offer a premium product.
Keep in mind the board still needs to have good electromagnetic shielding (EMF shield cover) -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_shielding (and some manufacturers are starting to use multiple-layer PCB with thicker copper in the hope it too will reduce EMF interference sensitivity).
PS: Also recommend you consider always shipping any radio USB adapter with at least a 1-meter USB 2.0 extension cable with good shielding with this USB dongle in the same package as it really makes a night and day difference in noise from EMF interference, (which is why the Home Assistant SkyConnect USB dongles ships with a 0.5 meter long USB extension cable, though it has been proven to work better with an even longer extension cable).
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